The Lost Son [Hardcover]

Brent Spencer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 20, 1995

Returning home twelve years after abandoning her son and lover, Ellen sets off an emotional torrent of family conflict during which all three express their feelings of outrage, abandonment, rejection, pain, and vulnerability. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Told in brisk, unadorned prose from the shifting perspectives of its few characters, Spencer's impressive first novel evokes the ties that hold together a shattered family in a seedy and neglected corner of Pennsylvania. Earthy, plodding, seldom employed Lloyd Redmond maintains an uneasy standoff with Nick Loomis, the 16-year-old son of his ex-girlfriend, who ran out on them both six months earlier. Nick smolders with guilt and anger over his mother's abandonment, longs to flee the squalor of Redmond's dilapidated farmhouse, sleeps in the chicken coop to hide from Redmond and rebelliously pierces his ear. Spencer cross-weaves from Nick and Redmond to Ellen, who, unbeknownst to them, is traveling home by bus, hoping for a showdown with Redmond, to whom she's still hopelessly attached, and a reconciliation with Nick. Meanwhile, Redmond's grim, abusive father has suddenly surfaced, seeking a rapprochement with his estranged son. Spencer displays a keen, affectionate interest in the tangled emotional lives of his characters, yet his understated story, leavened by flashes of dark humor, is dampened somewhat by contrived moments of unabashed sentimentality.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Redmond and Ellen, lovers for 12 years, have a messy fight that drives Ellen to leave Redmond before he can leave her, but when she runs from her lover, she also runs away from her teenage son, Nick. Six months later, Nick and Redmond, with nothing in common except memories of and repressed hostilities toward Ellen, struggle to live together. It's just a matter of time before this situation becomes untenable and Nick runs away. Surprisingly, his flight coincides with Redmond's realization that he can fill the father role in Nick's life. Redmond's own father, a career navy officer, brutalized him as a child and then deserted the family, so Redmond's newfound knowledge is born from his struggle to understand what fatherhood means to him. The story comes to a head when Ellen returns and Redmond's father comes calling, wanting to be a father again. An emotionally compelling story, highly recommended for all libraries. Melanie Duncan

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Arcade Publishing; 1st edition (January 20, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559702664
• ISBN-13: 978-1559702669
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,937,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Bethesda, Maryland, but grew up mainly in northeastern Pennsylvania, though my family is from southern Indiana and northern Kentucky. I'm the author of The Lost Son, a novel, and Are We Not Men?, a collection of short fiction, both from Arcade Publishing, run by the legendary Richard Seaver. My most recent book is Rattlesnake Daddy: A Son's Search for His Father, a memoir about my father's mysterious life and death (The Backwaters Press). My short fiction has appeared in Best American Mystery Stories, The Atlantic Monthly, GQ, Missouri Review, Epoch, and elsewhere. I teach fiction writing and screenwriting at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

I'm married to the writer Jonis Agee. Together we are the indentured servants to two bichons frises and one horse. We live in Ponca Hills, which is on the Missouri River, north of Omaha, Nebraska. For more information, go to brentspencerwriter.com.

(Photo credit: Miriam Berkley)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just plain moving and rewarding, February 14, 1999

By 

Paul Angiolillo ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lost Son (Hardcover)

Somehow, despite a realistic story about hard-bitten people, this first novel is also sweet, moving, and not depressing. Maybe it's because the characters, despite their faults, have character. It's on a par with the best novels about life in the United States (in this case a small town in Pennsylvania) that I've ever read. It passes an ultimate test: I'd readily lend it to anyone. My father liked it, too.